Asian markets trade mostly lower in early deals on Monday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Monday on account of soft lead from Wall Street, where stocks ended lower on Friday despite fairly encouraging economic data. On the regional front, the Japanese stock market declined sharply, hurt by a report showing the economy to have unexpectedly contracted in the July - September quarter. Furthermore, yen strengthened from a seven-year low against the dollar also contributed to the downside. On the economic front, Japan's gross domestic product unexpectedly contracted 1.6 percent on year in the third quarter of 2014, the Cabinet Office said in Monday's preliminary reading. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan are notably lower. South Korea is down marginally, while Shanghai and Indonesia are slightly higher. Nikkei 225 tumbled by 420.17 points or 2.40% to 17,070.66, Hang Seng declined by 131.68 points or 0.55% to 23,955.70, KOSPI Index contracted 3.66 points or 0.19% to 1,941.48,  Straits Times dipped 19.35 points or 0.58% to 3,296.32, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 3.19 points or 0.18% to 1,810.60 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 58.91 points or 0.66% to 8,923.97. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite surged by 4.11 points or 0.08% to 5,053.59 and Shanghai Composite was up by 16.98 points or 0.68% to 2,495.80.